Job: Product Manager [Filled]

NYC Planning Labs is looking for a Product Manager to improve our existing portfolio, promote our core values, and bring digital transformation to the NYC Department of City Planning.

How we build is as important as what we build

The mission of Planning Labs is to build impactful products that improve urban planning processes, while building capacity for innovation in government. As a Product Manager, you’ll be part of a cross-functional team delivering user-centered products using agile methodologies and modern software development practices. You’ll help our product partners — subject matter experts within the agency — understand how our modern design and development practices create maximum value for users.

You’re passionate about civic tech

Product Managers on our team are strategic thinkers who are comfortable defining a compelling vision and designing a measurable strategy to achieve that vision. You know how to motivate cross-functional teams to deliver impactful features that bring the most value. You’re skilled at defining meaningful goals that galvanize the team, whether that means generating a product vision and strategy with your team or helping product partners articulate and focus their vision and strategy. You’ll collaborate with other product managers and share best practices, tools, and lessons learned with your peers and leaders to help guide our approach to digital transformation.

A sampling of our product portfolio

You’ll have the chance to work on our growing portfolio of products ranging from data visualizations to complex analytics and mapping tools. Some of the products you’ll get to work on include:

• Web maps like ZoLa and Street Map that make vast amounts of city data quickly accessible to planners and citizens
• Analysis and automation tools, like CEQR App, that break down complex government processes and make them faster, easier, and understandable
• Demographic and data tools like Population FactFinder and Community Profiles
• Data visualizations like Metro Explorer and Population Stories
• Focused data and mapping projects highlighting specific datasets or policies such as Waterfront Access and the Facilities Database

Build With, Not For

Our products each have an extremely well-defined user base, with the majority being power-users who rely heavily on our tools to accomplish their daily tasks. You’ll work directly with them to gather feedback, identify necessary features, and define requirements. Many users even work in the office with you, which fosters easy collaboration.

Working alongside designers, developers, and product partners, you’ll guide discussion towards logical assumptions and make sure those assumptions are thoroughly tested. We place great value on communication and transparency. Traditional performance indicators such as user acquisition and retention or profit/loss are less relevant in our products, as it’s often feasible for us to talk to every single person in a user base. Our objective is impact, not profit. We strive to give the public better access to information, inform policy makers, and streamline government processes.

A successful Product Manager at Planning Labs will:

• Lead communications between product users, partners, stakeholders, and a cross-functional team of designers and engineers
• Ensure all team members have a shared understanding of product objectives, goals, and metrics
• Use evidence (research, analytics, metrics) to make product decisions, conducting analysis of technical needs and researching possible solutions
• Ask “why” a lot
• Help your peers understand how to deliver value rather than features, vetting ideas based on potential impact
• Create product strategies and roadmaps, and develop communications strategies to support product goals
• Identify, proactively monitor, and address product risks
• Work with the team to set and meet quality standards
• Coach product partners in agile, open source, and user-centered design principles so they understand the value these practices bring
• Keep abreast of product management best practices and tools that could improve the way we work
• Stay on top of new technologies and open-source products
• Recommend when to not build custom tools
• Contribute to our team’s transparency with blog posts and presentations that share our work, our successes and failures, and our mission

You should apply if:

• You have experience helping interdisciplinary product teams in the research, design, development, and delivery of digital products or services
• You have experience bringing products from concept to delivery, using iterative development methodologies, user-centered design and planning tools, and continuous delivery methodologies
• You have domain knowledge of urban planning challenges and are passionate about using technology to improve urban planning and government processes

What you get

• Salary commensurate with experience
• New York City health benefits, including full dental coverage
• 15 paid vacation days a year, with an additional 11 paid Federal holidays
• Eligibility for a host of NYC retirement plans
• Agency-issued MacBook Pro and dual-monitor workstation
• Modern office in downtown Manhattan (including rooftop lounge!)
• Strong work/life balance

Ready to apply?

Let us know why you’d like to work at NYC Planning Labs

We look forward to hearing from you!

If you have questions about the job or the team, message us on Twitter @nycplanninglabs.